6G Celicas Forums

alright so i need someone who does paint and body work for a living, i need a straight answer and not opinions.

anyways i just got done painting my front end(well most of it) and i put my bumper on but it was such a pain to put on now, its like it shrunk a tiny bit or something, now note i did not paint the bumper on the car i removed it and just set it up on two lawn chairs. for paint i did lacquer on top of mostly factory paint(good bit of it was removed from prep work) but nothing else was different, the shrinkage was not too bad but now my bumper to hood gap is not correct. so what i did was get it close and going to let it sit for a few days to maybe let the heat get it back to its original shape. theres no warping going on or anything, and fit perfect before i painted it so im thinking it has to do with the paint or just from the temp outside combined with how i had it propped up for painting? thanks in advance .

I removed my bumper cover and painted it myself (and have done plenty on other vehicles). No way it would have shrunk. That being said, these things have a tendency to never fit right once they are removed and messed with, sometimes it takes patience and some careful manipulation (with a hip or a knee in the right place). Good luck

I think it's just how ABS is. They are a hassle to put back on perfect. Especially if they've been off the same car for a long while or transferring them from on the another.

alright thanks, like i said never had this issue before and had the bumper off a few different times but none of them was longer then a day, this sat for around 7 days so....would also help if my darn bumper to hood metal trim strip/weather strip was not rusted out in the middle and i could get all the top bolts in my bumper. another issue im having lol. now i know. if its going to be off the car for a long peroid of time. put it back on untill you need it off for sanding or whatever lol....abs is a weird material i guess...